Filled with stories, charm and originality, the Carriage House Inn, nestled back from the main road in Searsport, has been keeping a secret for years. That three-story secret will be revealed at 5 p.m. Saturday on an episode of “Bill Green’s Maine,” and innkeeper Marcia Markwardt can barely contain herself.

Not only did Maine television personality Bill Green find the 1874 sea captain’s Victorian worthy of a segment, but the national media also are giving the site some attention.

Last October, HGTV took over the inn for 11 hours for a 30-minute episode that’s scheduled to air at 5 p.m. Monday, June 23.

Built by one of the prominent seafaring families of Maine, the property served as an Army barracks in World War II and later was purchased by prominent painter Waldo Peirce.

After researching a variety of Maine inns, HGTV producers contacted Markwardt to see whether she’d be interested in participating in an episode.

“Oh no!” was her reply.

But Markwardt said she soon found herself filling out paperwork and signing confidentiality agreements.

“It was about a month’s ordeal of filling out hundreds of pieces of paperwork,” she said.

For Markwardt, the story of her love for the ocean and the history of the inn have come full circle.

Although she’s “from away,” Markwardt’s great-grandfather was a sea captain and used to stop in Searsport to deliver cargo. “So my roots are the sea,” she said.

Just last week she was at the Waldoboro Historical Society sharing the story of Howard Burns Allen, whose ship went down in a fire Friday, Feb. 13, 1913. All those aboard, including her grandmother, lived to tell about it.

“They were on a pleasure cruise when it caught fire,” Markwardt said.

Just recently, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, or NOAA, found the wreckage off the coast of Cape Cod, placed it on the National Historic Register, and is planning to dive to it this summer.

Markwardt’s son, a marine biologist and diver, has received permission to participate in the dive.

“What were the odds that I’d have a kid who is a diver and I’d end up living in Searsport?” she said.

Coming from Massachusetts, Markwardt had been a counselor at Tufts University and was looking for a change. She began looking for coastal property in Maine from York to Calais.

“I just fell in love with Penobscot Bay,” she said. “It’s not been my lifelong dream to be an innkeeper, but I had to think of a way to make money and live here.”

Since purchasing the house in May 2003, she has been a one-woman show, operating the inn by herself with the exception of an occasional hand from her assistant, Jimmy, a 14-year-old beagle who acts more as a lookout than a helper.

Now looking for a change, Markwardt is preparing to sell the inn.

“I’ve put my heart and soul into this place, and a lot of money,” she said. “But it needs a family. It needs more than me.”

Capt. John McGilvery and his shipwrights built the 6,000-square-foot house for $5,000. At the time, the average house in Maine had a price tag of $100, Markwardt said.

Fascinated with the history of the sea, the innkeeper became involved with the nearby Penobscot Marine Museum. She learned all about the five McGilvery brothers and describes their family history as “enthralling.”

The Carriage House Inn to some is better known, however, for its owner from 1948 to 1968. Famed painter Waldo Peirce, a Bangor native, occupied the property and used the carriage house loft as his studio.

“He said it was some of the best light he’d ever painted in,” Markwardt said.

Showing off the loft where Peirce worked for hours on end, she pointed out that the artist’s paint-stained fingerprints still linger on the double doors overlooking Penobscot Bay.

Peirce was a longtime friend of writer Ernest Hemingway, and Markwardt said many of her guests come to the inn because of that connection.

“A lot of people choose it for the history, and that’s what makes it fun for me,” Markwardt said. “I like to think potentially of [Peirce] and Hemingway sitting up here, having a scotch and doing their thing.”

Although the house now is filled with period-appropriate furniture and accessories to accent the original trim, moldings, pumpkin pine floors and architecture, Markwardt said the house was empty when she bought it with the exception of some old photos on the wall.

“I had some things, but it was a spit in the ocean,” she said.

The property hadn’t been run as an inn for nine years, and the now well-groomed landscape had run awry.

She has made a few changes to the property, such as adding a bathroom in the carriage house loft so she can rent the space out to families, but she has made sure that the house retains its character and authenticity.

The wooden bathroom door is marked in white paint that reads “Keep Out! J.P.” Markwardt found the door in the attic and said that it likely was branded by Waldo Peirce’s son, Jonathan Peirce.

In the main house, previous owners redid the kitchen, and a door was added when McGilvery’s library was taken out and turned into a sitting room off the parlor.

“This used to be floor-to-ceiling cherry bookshelves,” Markwardt said.

The five fireplaces remain intact, although they aren’t used, and the innkeeper pointed out tile around one in the former study that McGilvery brought back from the trip to Italy.

She has managed to find plenty of period pieces that add a touch of charm and personality to the house. On one wall of the dining room sits a captain’s organ that was made in Portland, nautical accents adorn shelves and hang from beams, and pieces of pipe stems, old glass bottles and china that Markwardt has discovered are set in plain view and often serve as conversation pieces.

“Just some of my finds on my wanderings around,” Markwardt said.

She has confined herself and Jimmy to the third floor “penthouse,” and rents out the three bedrooms on the second floor, each with a private bath.

“Of course there weren’t bathrooms back in the 1800s, but whoever put them in did a wonderful job,” she said.

Outside, she has brought the grounds back to life and repainted the intricate exterior of the house.

“I never get tired of looking at it, I have to admit,” she said standing in the gravel path driveway.

Markwardt said she’s eagerly awaiting the showing of “Bill Green’s Maine” and “If Walls Could Talk” so she can finally talk about the secret she has unearthed inside.

“I can’t wait,” she said. “It was quite an honor and thrill, and I love showing off this place.”

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